Happy Thanksgiving!

howdy partners!

after my 'relaxing' first weekend in my new site, i went to my first day of work in my new town. from my first impression of my new boss i got the feeling i'd be working a lot - he works 361 days a year. i was eager to set a standard for myself and show that i'm ready to do a good job and to be a team player, but i'm not going to turn my entire life into 'work'. so, i showed up 10 minutes late! not bad for a first impression! ha! well, it didn't do anything for me, cause my counterpart, the
guy that i'm supposed to be attached at the hip to, was in sofia till after lunch. i just kind of observed how things went and tried to get a feel for the people. by the time the office closed, i was well ready to relax and quit thinking about bulgarian. and then some silly meeting started. they must have been the board of directors or something... but i didn't get home until after 8 o'clock. more than 11 hours after
my first workday started... my first week, i just kind of watched how things were
done and met different people though i can't remember anyone. seemed kind of nice, except my counterpart's entire life is his work. he gets a lot of things accomplished... except maybe living! so we'll probably butt heads a few times in the next 2 years.

when the peace corps dispersed us to our sites we had the rules/expectations of not doing anything for the first 3 months. only watch, learn, try to get integrated into the community. this kind of thing. and on top of that, we're not allowed to leave our sites in the first 3 months either! so what i did was left my site on the first weekend! ha! there was a group of volunteers meeting in plovdiv and i've become
good friends with them, so i took off! i needed to buy a winter jacket anyway though - cause it's getting really, really cold here! so i broke the don't leave in the first 3 months rule... but i don't really think people are going to stay in one place for that long. not with so many things happening all the time.

so, week two came and i expected it to be like week one. but it wasn't. my counterpart put me to work! so much for the not doing anything for 3 months! he started me off on quite a large project for this little town, and for my first project. i had to create a budget analysis and a budget summary for a $20,000 project that's designed to fund a renovation for a building to be used as sort of a museum of the local peoples culture! then the guy asked me to translate the
bulgarian version of a not-for-profit non governmental organization form. well he hasn't even gotten me a language tutor, and those are big words on that document - big bulgarian words! so i just kinda said ok and let it sit on the desk. there's a lot more to do on this project and the whole thing is due at the end of the month! ha! he asked me to work this last weekend, so i told him i was going back to krichim for the weekend, which i did and it was wonderful! good to see the host families and
friends again! and now he wants me to work this next weekend too! so i'm getting the impression that if i don't have travel plans or guests, i have to work on the weekends! ha! i wasn't taking too well to his expectations on me, so i finally sat him down and told him how it was going to be. either i'll be happy, or i'll be packing. that got his attention real quick and put the ball back in my court, where it will stay.

been talking with some other volunteers who don't go into work till after lunch, if even at all. other kids in the bigger cities have things like full on grocery stores and anything else a big city has to offer like really cool second hand clothing stores or even a movie theater. my town has as an atm, which they just got last year and the people threw parties when it was installed. there's no bank here or
anything, just the atm. it was a big deal.

so with that, i was left kind of feeling like i got stuck in a position with a much, much greater workload than my friends. i kinda did some diggin for an answer to this situation and what i found was that the peace corps volunteer here before me had
done such a good job and had left such big shoes to fill, they needed someone capable of filling those shoes. there were several other assignments that i would have much preferred based on the nature of the work, but i was placed here because
they needed someone who could handle this particular assignment. of course i wanted an assignment where i could use my incredible science skills to impress all kinds of
bulgarians - but for now, and for the first little while i'm only making use of my english and professional skills (yes, i have professional skills - i just don't choose to employ them very often). those are boring! once i get a few 'tourist' related projects running to keep my counterpart busy, i'll switch to doing something more interesting with our partner organization - the national park. there's tons of potential there to do some really cool things with environmental education! oh
boy!

finally found some daylight and time to go for a walk in my new town. it's a nice little place. there's some really cute parts, and some very nasty looking parts. many places look completely abandoned, on account of that's exactly what happened! whether it was when communism fell, or it just happened as people keep moving out of
this city, i don't know. the towns population has decreased 50% in only the last 10 years! people keep leaving to go find work. i'd probably do the same thing, i mean, there wasn't even an atm in the city how do you get paid?! ha! this town's nearly 100% bulgarian. there are a few minorities, and by a few i mean one or two people. the dominant religion in town is the eastern orthodox - this is the most common in
the country as well. my training site, krichim, had a very high muslim community, so there was a mosque and muslim people and everything, but here, in a town of 3500 orthodox christians, there's 4 full on churches and whole load of smaller churches. i miss the guy that sings 5 times a day.

gas is about $4.25 a gallon here. but most people have their cars adapted with a simple engine modification that lets them switch from gasoline as a fuel source to using propane. propane runs about $2.50 a gallon and is much cleaner and more fuel
efficient than gasoline! it's à really cool deal! a cup of coffee at a local cafe costs a quarter, and a tea is the same. a glass of wine is only about 30 cents, a beer only 60 cents. 2 pounds of tomatoes (really good tomatoes) are about 50 cents in the summer, but about a dollar in the winter. a liter of sunflower oil is about a buck and a half, but olive oil is over six bucks for a liter! i bought a nice
loaf of bread today for 35 cents, but i had to slice it myself... my rent is just over a hundred dollars - i think it's a rip off in comparison with what other volunteers are paying and what we're all getting. and utilities, i'm told, run about 100 bucks a month too. peace corps gives me a small living allowance to take care of all these things and i'm living comfortably, but there's definitely no room for savings! the majority of the food here is either chicken or pork, lots of potatoes and bread, and lots of veggies. which i've really grown accustomed to. they have all kinds of wonderfully delicious salads, but there's no lettuce to be found anywhere in this country!

thanksgiving's coming up really fast! different people in our group of 50 are having parties here or there throughout bulgaria. i'm gonna head down south near the border
with turkey to visit my buddy alex in the town of nedelino. he's a good guy. i'm going down there for thursday thanksgiving, but i told peace corps i'll be giving a presentation on the ecological and toxicological effecs of burning trash, which i
will do. so i got the whole trip approved for business travel! my assigned friends in kalofer (cause they were friends with the pcv i replaced) threw a fit when they heard i was leaving and told me i had to stay here and throw a party for them cause it was an american holiday! so i'm having friday thanksgiving in kalofer with the locals. and then on saturday - there's a thanksgiving party in sliven with about 15 pcv's, so i'll make it out there for that. even with the dominant chicken and pork
diet, there is turkey available... i hear. we'll see. 3 thanksgiving dinners in three nights! not bad for having to celebrate in another country!

happy thanksgiving all,

andy/clive/andrecho (this is what the locals call me!)